Aye, 'tis true! My child has gone from me! She is bewitched and stolen!
Bewitched and stolen! Everywhere I looked and found no token: but at
the door of Goody Gurton I found _this_!

[Holds up small white Puritan cap.

THE CROWD.
A-aaaaaah!

BRADFORD.
How came this cap to your door, Goody Gurton?

GOODY GURTON
(in a shaking voice).
The children often visit me for sweetmeats. I gave the child a little
barley sugar. She may have dropped the cap. I do not know.

BRADFORD.
Where did she turn after she left your doorway?

GOODY GURTON.
I did not look which way she went. I do not know. Oh, worshipful sir----

BRADFORD. Silence! Who else accuses Goody Gurton?

GOODWIFE HUBBARD.
We've seen strange things about, have we not, neighbors?

ALL.
Aye! Aye!

GOODWIFE HUBBARD.
Last night the wind wailed in my chimney. And when I crossed the fields
at twilight I had a feeling _that something followed me._

MERCY HUBBARD
(piping up).
And Goodman Folger's cow hath died since yesternight. And Goody Gurton
was seen going by the pasture.

VIGILANT WINTHROP.
Aye, there be many signs. Last night the moon rose red.

JOHN GILES.
And the week before there were more bats flying than I have ever seen
in Salem.

GOODWIFE BROWN.
And Goodwife Eaton says that all night long in the woods behind her
house there is something crying--she cannot tell whether it be an owl
or a child.

REPENTANCE FOLGER.
Last eve, when the wind was blowing, something flapped past me like a
witch's cloak.

BRADFORD.
What have you to say to these things, Goody Gurton?

GOODY GURTON
(quite simply).
Why, naught, sir, naught. I noted myself that last week the moon rose
red, and that last night the wind blew shrewdly.

BRADFORD.
How comes it that you were leaving the streets of Salem, and walking
here in the forest? 'Twas here in the forest we found you.

GOODY GURTON.
I came to hunt for some simples...for spearmint and checkerberry and
tansy.

BRADFORD
(with deep sternness).
And for wolfbane and hellbore and all other hideous herbs that witches
brew in their caldrons. You stand accused, Goody Gurton.

GOODY GURTON
(bewildered).
Accused?

BRADFORD.
Of witchcraft.

THE CROWD
(alternately surging close to her, and falling back).
A-aaah! To the pond with her! To the pond!

JOHN GILES.
If she sinks she is a witch, if she swims----

GOODY GURTON.
Have mercy----

GOODWIFE HUBBARD
(with a shiver).
The water in the pond is deep